Dan Lanning took an extra second or two to stop as he was walking off the field, turn around, and take in the scene behind him. Washington was celebrating a Pac-12 Championship thanks to a second win over the Ducks this season. Oregon was walking off devastated.

“There’s nobody outside of this room that wants us to do better than those guys in that locker room, these coaches,” Lanning said. “They know what we had this year. We have a special group this year.”

And Lanning said the loss hurt. Quarterback Bo Nix was in shock after the game. Others were emotional on the sideline. The Ducks were close to the College Football Playoff. A third consecutive loss to UW instead sends the Ducks into an offseason filled with a bit more introspection.

Lanning was asked after the game about what was going through his mind as he walked off the field.

“Just thinking about our players. I just want to be around our players, let them know how proud I am of them,” he said. “There’s disappointment in that locker room because of how hard these guys worked. I haven’t been around a team that works this hard. I hurt for them because I wanted them to have this one.

“Again, credit to Washington. They earned it, deserved it, played a four-quarter game. We probably played the last three quarters. We didn’t start off very well in the first quarter.”

The Ducks spotted the Huskies a 20-3 lead. Oregon ripped off 21 unanswered to flip the momentum and take a brief lead, but Washington was not going to be denied.

“It’s a building block, right? We’re in Year 2. This is an opportunity to build on to this and set the expectation for what it should look like in the future,” Lanning said. “And we’ve got an opportunity to go play in a really good bowl game and cap this thing off the right way.”